But O’Meara was having none of that and was backed by R&A chief executive Peter Dawson, who insisted: “It’s far from unplayable.”

American O’Meara said: “I have heard some of the comments but I’ve played in 27 or 28 Opens and I’ve seen the most horrendous conditions you can think of for playing golf out there.

“Trust me, I’ve stood on holes where it’s 200 yards or 212 and hit driver, and I could barely hold on to the club and it’s freezing, raining and sleeting and cold and I can’t put my umbrella up. To me that’s way more miserable than what we had out there.

“I thought it was tough, it was challenging. But unfair? I say no. If they think it’s that way, they need to look at the old man and say, ‘How did he do it that way?’ Seriously, you know these guys are good, they should be able to play in these conditions. I just didn’t see it unfair.

“Today the wind really didn’t blow that hard. I understand the course is dry. It’s firm. It’s fast. And the greens got pretty quick for an Open Championship. But I didn’t see it being unfair, in my opinion.

“Everybody’s personality is different out there. And I’m not saying that I haven’t complained or got upset on the golf course, but I’m not a big fan of guys that get out there and whine a lot.

“I just don’t see any reason for it, especially today’s generation. They’re so talented, the players today. And they’re playing for so much money.

“My feeling is, you look at the volunteers, you look at the media, look at everything. I mean to show a little bit of a sign of appreciation, to be at the top level of whatever sport you’re in, that requires some responsibility.

“And that aspect of it I think players should be more aware of and they need to conduct themselves in the right manner on the golf course. And when they don’t, it does bother me, to be honest with you.”

Dawson added: “We’ve got the conditions here that we really like to have – hard, fast, running conditions and we set up the golf course to test the players’ course management strategy. We do hear player comment and we’re not so insular as to ignore it.

“We’ll take that into account but we’re very happy with the scoring, it’s about what we would expect.

“I do understand some players get very frustrated. It’s playable but indeed very testing. We’re doing measurements day and night so we have the science. We have the great experience of Colin Irvine and his team here at Muirfield, who have a great track record of producing this course in wonderful conditions.

“A combination of those two is, I think, giving us the right results, very testing, tough. I guess it’s The Open Championship.”